When viewing images displayed on a television screen by an Internet appliance, it is often desirable to view a portion of that image in a magnified format in order to discern small details that are lost by the typically poor resolution found on television screens. For example, Chinese characters often include small details such as lines separated by small distances that are impossible to discern at typical television screen resolution. To discern which character is displayed, the character must be magnified enough to discern these small details.
FIG. 1 depicts a first conventional magnification tool disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,754,348 (Soohoo). Soohoo discloses a method for context-preserving magnification of selected digital image regions that allows simultaneous viewing of the magnified image and its unmagnified context (e.g., the unmagnified image surrounding the magnified image). The method provides a floating window 122 containing the magnified image that is superimposed on the original (unmagnified) background image. Floating window 122 is moved around the display screen using an input device (e.g., a mouse or trackball), and displays a magnified image of a selected region located under floating window 122 such that the magnified image within floating window 122 is superimposed over the selected region.
A problem with the magnification tool taught by Soohoo is that Soohoo fails to display a cursor or other pointing device in floating window 122, and fails to teach or suggest a method for selecting (clicking on) interface elements, e.g. a hyperlink, located in floating window 122. It would be desirable to have a method for using the pointing device interactively with interface elements shown in floating window 122. Additionally, reading horizontal text is difficult when the width of floating window 122 is less than the display screen width. It would be preferable to have a window extending the width of the display screen to maximize the horizontal area, thereby maximizing the readability of text appearing in the floating window.
FIG. 2 depicts another conventional magnification tool provided in Windows 2000 by Microsoft™ Corporation. A user interface 200 is divided into an upper portion 210 and a lower portion 220. Lower portion 220 displays an original (unmagnified) background image along with a cursor 230. Selected region 255 borders a portion of the original background image and is centered on cursor 230. Upper portion 210 displays a magnified version of a selected region 225 of the original background image surrounding cursor 230. Upper portion 210 additionally displays a magnified version (cursor 230E) of cursor 230, which is proportionally located with respect to the magnified version of selected region 225 displayed in upper portion 210.
A problem with the magnification tool shown in FIG. 2 is that although this magnification tool provides a magnified format for viewing small details of the original background image, it has the disadvantage that the context of the magnified image presented to the viewer is lost. Further, while a split screen display is suitable for high resolution computer monitors, the area occupied by such a split screen considerably reduces the available area on a television display, thereby making this magnification poorly suited for Internet appliances.
What is needed is a magnification tool that facilitates the interaction with interface elements, such as push buttons, text entry boxes, and hyperlinks, while minimizing the amount of required screen space and maintaining context, thereby optimizing the magnification tool for Internet appliances.